Sing a Song of Sixpence: The Birds We Found in the Web Scale Discovery Pie

Sarah Fabian, Sara Memmott, Susann deVriesEastern Michigan University

LOEX 2012

Session Overview

• Background about our acquisition of Summon• Snapshot of Web scale discovery tools• Impact on instructional activities• User feedback• Impact on collections• Discussion & Questions

Our Acquisition of Summon & A Brief Intro to Web Scale

Discovery Tools

Summon & the EMU Library

• Eastern Michigan University– Public, regional university– 22,000 students

• 17,500 undergrad• 4,500 grad

• Summon– One year trial started

Summer 2011– Locally branded as Esearch

Web Scale Discovery Tools

• Lots of content

• Simple search interface

• Relevance ranked results

• Examples:• Summon (Serials Solutions)• EBSCO Discovery Service• Primo Central (Ex Libris)• WorldCat Local (OCLC)

Impact of Summon on Instruction Activities

First Year Writing Research Instruction: Pre-Summon

• First Year Writing Program allows students to do intensive, multi-modal research on a topic of interest

– No one-size-fits-all method to cover their needs

– Focus on tools/plethora of options rather than content and evaluation

– Lots of confusion about *what* they were finding/how to make sense of it

First Year Writing Research Instruction: Post-Summon

• Upfront conversations about academic literature• One place for all students to begin, with an

interface that’s more simple/Google-y• Less time navigating tools; more time evaluating

sources• Leads more quickly to high quality &

interdisciplinary sources• Often seamless connection to full-text of articles

Graduate Instruction Prior to Summon

• Database specific searching

• Silos of information

• Boolean logic

• “click here, then …”

Graduate Research Instruction: Pre-Summon

• SPHI 591– Special Education Hearing Impairments

• HIST 515, 592– Europe in Early/Late Middle Ages

Upper Level and Graduate Research Instruction: Post-Summon

Assessment & User Feedback

Summon Assessment Efforts

• Library Instruction Form—added two questions: – Did you use Esearch? (Y/N)– Esearch led me to relevant results (Likert scale)

• Student survey• Faculty survey (including library faculty)• Collection use data

Student Feedback – Instruction Form• Instruction Session Evaluation Form• “Using Esearch led me to resources that were relevant to my research

project”:

Strongly agree

47%

Agree35%

_x0007_Neutra

l11%

Disagree3%

Strongly disagree2%

Unanswered2%

Student Survey“…how searching for academic sources should be…it doesn't make any sense that scholars need to know specific databases orjournals in which to conduct searches, especially since we live in an interdisciplinary world”

“I still use the other databases when I know pretty well what I'm looking for. But when I want to explore a new topic, Esearch is so much more intuitive that I not only find more relevant sources but also discover unexpected connections among ideas. It's definitely got me thinking in new ways.”

“This is the most user-friendly database I have ever used. It has made a huge difference in my academic success.”

“It takes a little while but once I get the right terminology then I get lots of good results.”

“other databases were harder to use -- but that is where I found good articles”

Faculty Survey“(Students) have indicated that is is much easier to navigate and provides them with more results that are useful in their research. I have also noticed my students using stronger research since the implementation of Esearch”

“(Students) love it! All of the resources accessible in one place. Makes using the library easier and more likely.”

“It is nice to have a simple interface like this, but….”

“(Students) like it. But the amount of data that comes back can take some work to sort through.”

Library Faculty Feedback

• Themes from use of Esearch with students:– Value ease of use and

searching– Advantage of not needing to

select a database– Results are not always

relevant for all topics

Impact on Collection Use

• Full text downloads of online content increased after Esearch was implemented:

• Jan – Aug 2011 showed only a 3.3% increase compared to Jan – Aug 2010

Sept - Dec 2011 Sept - Dec 2010 % Change

Full Text Downloads

324,424 291,778 11.2%

Your Experiences/Discussion

• What’s a strategy that’s been successful for you in using a Web scale discovery tool to teach?

OR

• What’s a strategy that you’d like to go back and try with your teaching in general (whether or not you have a discovery tool at your institution)?

Discussion

Questions?

Thank you!

• Sarah Fabian, First Year Experience Librarian, sfabian@emich.edu

• Susann deVries, Education Librarian, sdevries@emich.edu• Sara Memmott, Social Work and Emerging Technologies

Librarian, smemmott@emich.edu

Image Credits

• Blackbird pie: http://www.scottgustafson.com/Images/Gallery/Nursery_Rhymes/full_images/Blackbirds_in_pie.png

• Blackbird: http://www.nps.gov/prsf/naturescience/brewers-blackbird.htm

• Magnifying man: www.istockphoto.com

• Silos: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silos_in_Indiana.jpg